Favourite Posts of 2017

🎉HAPPY NEW YEAR 🎉

2018 is here, and after a well needed rest over the holidays I’m back with my favourite posts of 2017.

In my personal life, last year was a very mixed bag. The highs were undoubtedly the births of my nephew and niece, but the end of year turned into a cloudy, shadowed mess of bad mental health and depression – two things I’m working very hard to fix.

Despite planning and working hard behind the scenes, Calamity Ray faltered and stuttered a bit as the year wore on – I’m working up the courage to cover this more in a post at some point, so keep an eye out.

Today though, I want to look back at some of my favourite posts from the previous year, so let’s get started!

My first collab with a big brand happened at the start of the year, and I was thrilled to work with Dylon on a ‘spring spruce’ post last February.

I’m a big fan of the ‘spring clean’ and sprucing my home up to inject some life back into it, so when DYLON UK got in touch to ask if I’d like to collaborate on with a homely tutorial I immediately said yes!

Mental health featured heavily on Calamity Ray in 2017 and began with a tip post for anxiety sufferers.

“A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.”

Although this is a pretty accurate broad description, anxiety affects people in very different ways, and everyone has their own ways of handling the crippling thoughts, feelings and worries that seem to be the core elements of anxiety.

Every season brings about new feelings of happiness and fun, and I celebrated the start of Spring with a post detailing exactly what I enjoy about it.

Whilst it’s not my favourite season, I can’t deny that I love the chill in the air, the budding new nature and everything else associated, so join me as I run through the things that I love about spring.

In Summer, I had the opportunity to visit and review the opening of a pop-up Italian fusion bar on First Street, and had a wonderful cocktail filled evening with owner Dave Marsland and well known Italian chain Pizza Express.

Located on the up and coming First Street you’ll find the Italian influenced Bassano Bar standing out from the crowd, with its all glass exterior and gorgeous lavender blooms inviting you in for a closer look. Accompanied by my gorgeous date for the evening (my wife), we made our way down on a quiet Thursday evening after the post-work rush to try some of the menu, and I instantly fell in love.

After what felt like years, Kat Von D’s legendary make-up range became available to buy in-store in Debenhams, Manchester. I celebrated with a gorgeously gifted palette from my better half, and have since picked up several others bits and pieces from this fantastic, cruelty free range.

The matte, coffin-shaped box with some seriously nice branding is super appealing, and ties in really well with the rest of the KVD range. Despite lots of fluff clinging to it the minute I took it out of the box (so…much…static), I adore the look and feel of it and it looks fabulous sitting on my dressing table.

Christmas felt different this year (the addition of babies makes everything a little more magical) and I wholeheartedly believe following my own advice and taking the pressure off made it such a lovely time – out of all the blogmas style posts I put up this one was a definite favourite.

Tis the season for giving to others and eating your body weight in mince pies, and it’s super easy to forget to take a minute in the Christmas madness and give yourself some self care.

I usually stay well away from fashion and outfit posts, and what essentially started as a filler post (you’ll know what I mean if you do blogmas!) turned into a post that I super enjoyed writing, and had great reception and feedback!

It’s officially party season, and what better way to celebrate than with a collection of my favourite Christmas celebration outfit ideas?

And there we have it – my personal fav posts of 2017!

There may be a slight delay in posting whilst I get back into the swing of things, but do remember to subscribe and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Bloglovin‘ to stay up to date with my latest content.